We read in the Chad this week that Mark Spencer MP for Sherwood had been given 'assurances' that 'Sherwood Forest' would not be sold off as it is not managed by the Forestry Commission.
This is misleading as 'Sherwood Forest' is much much larger than just the Country Park that is managed by Nottinghamshire County Council which I believe he may have been referring to.
The forest next to it is Birklands and is part of Sherwood Forest too. It is right next to Bilhagh (the Country Park). This area of the forest is managed by the Forestry Commission for the three estates of Fitzherbert, Thoresby, and Welbeck. In this area is what is probably the most important archaeological site in the whole of Sherwood Forest, Thynghowe. Birklands was probably part of the Northumbrian Mercian border. Thynghowe was a Viking assembly site, before that a Saxon Moot and is sited on possibly a Bronze Age burial mound. It has recently come to international attention by attendance of The Friends of Thynghowe at conferences for the Thing sites of Northern Europe. www.thynghowe.org.uk
This puts this area of Birklands which is managed by the Forestry Commission at the heart of Sherwood Forest, a significant place that has been used for thousands of years. If the Forestry Commission were forced to give up their management of Birklands and sell the contract to a private company we could lose the access and amenity of this historic site. It could be used for less sensitive commercial forestry and some of the important archaeological evidence still to be discovered could be destroyed .
We are concerned that if people in government think that Sherwood Forest as just being the Country Park, many areas of the real Sherwood Forest, those of outstanding ecological value and significant cultural heritage, will be lost because of a lack of understanding for what the whole of Sherwood Forest consists of.
Sherwood Forest is not just the Country Park of 440 acres of woodland leased from the Thorseby Estate by Nottinghamshire County Council. It is much, much larger than that and part of our collective national heritage.
The woodland areas of Sherwood Pines, Thieves Wood, Wellow Wood, Silverhill Wood, and Blidworth Wood are all in the bounds of Sherwood Forest and could all be sold off.
The Forest of Dean, and the New Forest contain many woodlands, villages and open heathland pasture as does Sherwood Forest. As a royal hunting forest Sherwood Forest was 20 miles long and ten miles wide. This geographic area was and is being considered as a regional park. All Forestry Commission owned and managed woodlands in the Nottinghamshire area are therefore vital to a cohesive forestry facility. This forestry underpins the tourist industry of the area and the overall global appeal of Nottinghamshire.
The Nottinghamshire County Council has already sidelined the visitor centre for the Sherwood Forest Country Park. The NCC has also indicated that most of the rangers will be made redundant. The combined effect, along with Forestry Commission redundancies, could make all the hard work and money spent over the last 30 years a complete waste of time. We could be close to losing something far bigger than the local MP for Sherwood realises.
See also 'Is Sherwood Forest Targetted for DEFRA sell-off'
See also 'Is Sherwood Forest Targetted for DEFRA sell-off'
No comments:
Post a Comment